hear for yourself
hear for yourselfhear for yourselfIn this IABCpodcast, Ann Buller,president and CEO of CentennialCollege in Toronto, discusses theCEO’s role as storyteller.

In this IABC podcast, Mark
Price, managing director of
Waitrose Supermarkets, talks
about some of the communication challenges facing top
executives today.

In this IABC podcast, Farm
Credit Canada CEO Greg Stewart
talks about how leaders need
to create an environment for
communication by listening.

Move beyond your comfort zone

Senior communication leaders should
develop a broad base of experience
across the various disciplines. It’s easy
to become a specialist within internal
communication or media relations or
marketing communication. But gaining exposure to areas of the business
that may be outside of your comfort
zone will help give you the depth you
need to lead the entire communication
team and offer strategic insight when
needed.

If you don’t have the opportunity forthat exposure in your current organiza-tion, seek opportunities to partner withcommunication disciplines outside ofyour area of expertise. There is no longera heavy dividing line between internaland external communication—so a360-degree view will come easier if youhave experience thinking from differentperspectives.

David Albritton, vice president and
chief communications officer at ITT
Exelis, a defense contractor in McLean,
Virginia, describes his role this way:
“Being the chief communications officer
means you are the chief reputation officer. In this role you are managing the
reputation of the company internally
and externally. You lead how your organization engages, how stakeholders
engage, how the organization communicates about how you are meeting your
commitments and what happens if you
don’t. From an internal perspective, if

Begin to position yourself as a business partnerby sharing your observations of the challengesand opportunities you see and where you thinkcommunication can be improved or altered.